Lala Lajpat Rai's death and murder of Saunders

The British government created a Commission under Sir John Simon to report on the then current political situation in India in 1928. The Indian political parties boycotted the Commission, because it did not include a single Indian in its membership, and the Commission was met with country-wide protests. When the Commission visited Lahore on 30 October 1928, Lala Lajpat Rai led a non-violent protest against the commission in a silent march, but the police responded with violence. The superintendent of police, James A. Scott, ordered the police to lathi charge the protesters and personally assaulted Rai, who was grievously injured. When Rai died on 17 November 1928, it was widely assumed that Scott's blows had hastened his demise. However, when the matter was raised in the British Parliament, the British Government denied any role in Rai's death. Although some sources mention that Singh witnessed the event, while others dispute this, he vowed to take revenge, and joined other revolutionaries, Shivaram Rajguru, Sukhdev Thapar, Jai Gopal and Chandrashekhar Azad, in a plot to kill Scott. Jai Gopal was supposed to identify the chief and signal for Singh to shoot. However, in a case of mistaken identity, Gopal signalled Singh on the appearance of John P. Saunders, an Assistant Superintendent of Police. He was shot by Rajguru and Singh while leaving the District Police Headquarters in Lahore at about 4:15 pm on 17 December 1928. Head Constable Chanan Singh was also killed when he came to Saunders' aid.